LAWRENCE HAMM GETS KEY TO THE CITY!
By ‘Bro. Zayid’
Lawrence Hamm has a shining social justice track record of over 40 years! On Sunday, February 21st, the tireless founding chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress was given an award of great distinction when he was given the ‘Key to the City’ of Newark by Mayor Ras Baraka at a community service dinner at which Hamm was the keynote speaker!
In 1971, inspired by the late Amiri Baraka, this son of Newark’s Central and West Wards launched his activism in full gear as a student at Arts High School with a protest at the Board of Education in support the historic Newark Teachers’ Strike. It would lead to him being appointed to the Board by Mayor Ken Gibson, making him, then only 17 years old, the youngest person ever to serve on the Board of Education.
At Princeton, his protest activity continued, including a takeover of an important hall at the famed Ivy League university. The action accelerated sustained protests all along the state to have its colleges and universities divest themselves of their interests in the former Apartheid Regime in South Africa. New Jersey’s ‘Divestment Movement’ had now been born!
In 1983, he launched the People’s Organization for Progress, one of the few organizations that can claim a victory against state intransigence around police brutality. Leading protests that went all the way to Philadelphia, Hamm’s mobilization efforts, which included an overnight occupation of Orange Police Station grounds, were key in securing Civil Rights convictions of the officers responsible for the beating death of Earl Faison back in April 1999. Most recently, he staged overnight occupations at Newark’s Social Security office protesting cuts in Social Security and an incredible 381 day protest for economic and social justice!
“Most people of his caliber and profile usually leverage their activism early on into something more career-centered or academic-oriented. He didn’t. Instead, in the language of the Black church protest tradition, he insisted on ‘staying on the battlefield,’” said Ingrid Hill, POP’s vice chair.
“It is rare, and yet very fitting here, to see a true people’s warrior be honored in official quarters for their legacy of protest like this,” said Larry Adams, POP’s vice chair of Internal Affairs.
“It is a credit to the mayor, himself a son of struggle, to make the acknowledgement, and of course, a huge credit to our chairman for being the long distance runner for the people against the state that he has been for so long, and illiciting respect for the people’s struggle from the other side,” he finished.
Clearly humbled by the recognition, Hamm said simply that “I am deeply grateful for this tremendous honor.
“It is the first time I have ever received such an award in my life.
“I accept it as an acknowledgement of the work of the People's Organization for Progress.
“Thank you Mayor Baraka.”
He is currently working on a national march against police brutality in Newark for July 25th.
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